Film Collaborative, Recreation pact for We Were Here sales

The Film Collaborative’s Orly Ravid in partnership with Ariel Veneziano’s Recreation will handle international sales on David Weissman’s Sundance and Berlinale entry We Were Here.

The film’s worldwide producer’s rep Jonathan Dana will take the lead on domestic sales in consultation with Ravid.

We Were Here premieres in the US Documentary Competition in Park City on Saturday [22] and chronicles the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco in 1981. Educational outreach will accompany distribution of the film, whose release coincides with the 30th anniversary of the AIDS outbreak.

Following the screenings at Sundance it will play in the Panorama section in Germany next month. Weissman negotiated the representation deal with Ravid and Dana.

“This innovative partnership between TFC and Recreation brings agility, prestige, and a filmmaker friendly approach that is exactly what this film calls for,” Weissman said. “I’m really excited to be working with them.”

“We were in love with the film at first viewing,” Ravid and Veneziano said. “What’s so impressive is that it exceeds every expectation of how powerful, engaging and deeply moving a documentary like this can be. It really works and we are honoured to be working with David and Jonathan.”

Weissman and Bill Weber co-directed the 2001 documentary The Cockettes about San Francisco’s theatre troupe of hippies and drag queens who performed from 1969-72.

The Film Collaborative and Recreation jointly represented worldwide rights on the documentary How To Start Your Own Country in Toronto last year.

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